74 
MEMOIR OF ARISTOTLE. 
Arabs or Saracens, Aristotle was superstitiously 
adored, and his philosophy was ardently studied in 
their schools during upwards of four centuries. His 
metaphysical niceties were well adapted to the acute 
mental temperament of that ingenious people. In 
dispute all parties acknowledged his supremacy, and 
appealed to his assistance. The doctors of the 
Mosque easily laid prostrate the most stubborn ar- 
guments both of Jews and Christians against the 
truth of the Koran with the resistless artillery of 
his syllogisms. To translate or produce a commen- 
tary on his works, appeared to them the highest 
pitch of excellence to which the genius of man could 
attain. The most eminent of these oriental exposi- 
tors, whose fame long resounded even in the schools 
of Europe, were Alkendi, Alfarahi, llhazes, Avi- 
cenna, and Averroes, who, in the felicitous obscu- 
rity of their opinions, often surpassed their master. 
When the literature of the Saracens was extinguish- 
ed at the taking of Bagdad by the Tartars in 1258, 
the illustration of the Aristotelian philosophy was 
prosecuted with unabated vigour in the Western 
Empire. So early as the sixth century, his logic 
assumed a Latin dress in the translation of Boethius 
Severinus, the last illustrious Consul of Rome. In 
this field the venerable Bede has also signalized him- 
self ; and during the middle ages, a few learned 
monks exercised their ingenuity on the same sub- 
ject. After a long interval of nearly 700 years, 
translations and commentaries in the same language 
